News

Columbus School Board Becomes More Hands-On

As state auditors wrap up their investigation into alleged data rigging in the Columbus City Schools, the district is set to make big changes on how it’s run. The new president of the Columbus school board promises to shake things up and increase scrutiny of the district’s budget and academic performance.

In the early 2000′s, The Columbus school board and its meetings were in chaos. Fights at board meetings were common. The late Bill Moss regularly clashed with administrators and fellow board members. He came to wear military fatigues to meetings and once pounded his shoe on the table until a meeting was adjourned.

To end the strife, the board adopted a management protocol called “policy governance.”

Ohio State University associate professor Craig Boardman says it was popular among school boards nationwide.

“Policy governance in relation to public boards is essentially an attempt to bring some semblance of structure to guide organizational behavior on a board,” says Boardman.

Policy governance basically kept the board from worrying about the small stuff. It set the policy, and left the administration of the district to then superintendent Gene Harris. She was given a lot more power. No longer could board members even disagree with Harris or each other in public. The motto was criticize privately, but praise publicly.

Advocates of policy governance used words such as “best practices” to describe the management style. But, Boardman says such policies often emphasize efficiency over effectiveness and sideline dissent.

“Whenever you have a one best way approach to governing something like a public board you always run the risk of being too dogmatic and really undermining some of the benefits of a diverse board,” says Boardman. As the years went on, new members of the board became frustrated. In May of 2011 former board member Stephanie Groce complained a budget document given them by then superintendent Gene Harris lacked cost figures for some district programs.